DESIGNER ERIK MAGNUSSEN (BORN 1940) Erik Magnussen is a qualified potter - educated at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts (Copenhagen), where he passed his exams with a silver medal in 1960. He then opened his own workshop in the basement of his parents' house and started producing pottery. Since his boyhood he had eagerly drawn and painted - a full-blooded and promising young artist was on his way. During his early pottery years, however, his interest was concentrated on ceramic materials for free sculpturing. He was attracted to the connection between technology and function - to placing articles for everyday use in a steady production using the right materials, suitable forms and esteemed aesthetics - at a sensible price and based on functionality. THE ART OF SIMPLICITY In 1961 Erik Magnussen was employed by Bing & Groendahl (Danish porcelain manufacturing company). Among his first works for Bing & Groendahl was the design of eleven tableware items, which together compose the porcelain set "Form 679". The novelty of the set was that the eleven items fully covered a so-called "normal" set of up to approx. 50 items. The simplicity process became Erik Magnussen's characteristic feature: It requires a thorough command of materials and production facilities - as possibilities are often automatically rejected by traditionally thinking experts. A SINGLE BENT TUBE The design of Erik Magnussen's chairs and table legs is often based on a single bent tube. For his functional canteen and conference table series "Click", designed for Fritz Hansen in 1994, Magnussen created leg bases, which function according to a click-on principle. The leg bases can be placed anywhere on the underside of the table top, and click on by themselves in the table edge grooves without fittings or use of tools. WHAT, WHO AND WHY These three words are important questions to Erik Magnussen: Nothing superficial is in his portfolio. To achieve the best possible result from the material he is working with, to achieve good results in mass production is his force. And he will carry on and on - which is evident from the improvements effected during the years 1975-1989 to his "Stelton" thermos. INGENIOUS Erik Magnussen is good at presenting simplified solutions. He will not complicate anything, which can be easily solved. A persistant search which yields admirable results and at the same time adds fine decoration to his collections - which besides tableware and furniture includes lamps and high-technological products. He has been given several grants and awarded the Danish "ID-Prize" a number of times. Elected Danish "Designer of the Year" in 1983 by the Danish Design Council and represented at museums all over the world. Over the years he has worked with manufacturers such as Bing & Groendahl, Stelton and Fritz Hansen, Royal Copenhagen, Paustian, Royal Selangor and Shipmate - and for a number of years he has been a professor at the Danish Academy of Fine Arts. ERIK MAGNUSSEN FURNITURE MANUFACTURED BY FRITZ HANSEN Click - table series (1994). Functional table range comprising a wide assortment of table tops (three widths and five lengths) with possible linking of corner elements (four angles), modesty panels and cable ducts. Based on an innovative leg base principle, tables can be linked without using any tools. Name plates and transport trolley are also available. Table tops are grey or white laminate, black-stained ash veneer or natural beech veneer. Leg bases are black-grey or silver-grey lacquer or chrome-plated with black clip fittings. REFERENCES "Erik Magnussen Design" by Henrik Sten Møller, published by Rhodos, 1990.